A Kinder Philosophy of Success
Alain de Botton, a popular and witty author, looks at a kinder, gentler philosophy of success in his talk at TED.
For the first time in history our society is not centred on religion. We now have a society based on the individual, and this has fundamentally shifted our expectations. Gone are the days when your success in life would be reckoned by God on the day of judgement, we now judge someone’s success by outward appearances, such as their position in society or their material wealth. This is why appearances, status and reputation can be so important to us.
Modern society tries to be just and fair to everyone, so we all have the opportunity to succeed in life. However, this creates the idea that some people are winners and some are losers. Rather than the older idea that someone who had fallen on hard times was unfortunate. The trouble is that this idea of winners and losers doesn’t take into account two things.
Firstly, that many aspects of life are random and depend on luck or being in the right place at the right time, or on things completely out of your control. Most lives have ups and downs, times of success and times of failure.
Secondly, that it is possible to judge someone’s success from the outside. This is really a myth. The usual measure of success is by looking at someone’s material possessions, fame or place in society. In reality success is different for each person, and it is up to each of us to determine what success means, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. It is all to easy to accept other people’s ideas of success as your own and use these to guide your life. Achieving success at the wrong thing can be unfulfilling and lead to unhappiness.
These ideas combine to add to the stress of modern life. We all want to be judged a success, and this is essential to our self esteem. However, it puts the blame squarely with us if we aren’t successful and society can be very critical. Jealousy of success and ridicule of failure abound, and can add to our stress.
Success can only be measured from the inside, because you can’t tell what someone else is aiming for to be a success. We all define our own success, and this will be the basis that we use to chose between different areas of our life to create our own work-life balance. This may look unsuccessful or unbalanced from the outside, and every life will have lots of ups and downs. It is only from the inside that we can measure our own success or be judged at the day of judgement.
Author : Colin Winstanley
Alain de Boton is a popular self help author, writing on the topics of work, happiness, love, status and modern philosophy. Click here for more information on Alain de Boton.
Health Tip - Understanding Bowel Cancer
Health Topic - Vitamins & Minerals
Happiness Tip - How Men and Women Think Differently
Health Tip - How To Lose Weight
Health Topic - Your Immune System
Health Tip - Understanding BPH - Benign Prostate Hyperplasia (Men’s wee problems)
Health Topic - Men’s Health
Success Tip - Working For Yourself
Health Tip - Measuring Your Own Blood Pressure
Health Topic - Healthy Bowels
01392 360125 OR